Organizers prepare for Ottawa's first Nuit Blanche

Nighttime arts festival set for Saturday, mainly in Hintonburg and ByWard Market

About 150 artists are getting ready for Ottawa's first Nuit Blanche on Saturday, a nighttime arts festival taking place mainly in Hintonburg and the ByWard Market.

And they've come up with a wide variety of projects, from sleeping in a glass box to covering a ParaTranspo bus with crocheted squares.

Joyce Westrop, meanwhile, will be driving a one-tonne steamroller in a Gladstone Avenue parking lot. She and two other artists will use the steamroller as a massive press to make big prints.

"It's going to be funky, but it should work," Westrop said.

Art galleries, coffee shops

The festival is taking place on the street, in art galleries, coffee shops and other places until early Sunday morning.

Megan Smith and co-curator Lainie Towell selected the artists, got the necessary permits and arranged for a shuttle bus to take festival goers back and forth between Hintonburg and the ByWard Market, the festival's two main sites.

Even after an original curator quit the project, Smith kept at it.

"It's a tiny team, and we're working around the clock to make it happen," she said. "Our reaction from the bulk of people is, finally. They're really excited for it. So, we'll see what happens.

"I would love to say, 'Yeah, they're going to take to it completely,' but I don't really know because it is the first time that we're doing this and it is a total experiment. But the overarching excitement that I'm getting from everybody … artists or general people in the city, they're really excited about it."

Smith said the team isn't sure how many people will check out the art, performances or steamroller late into the night.